Fitness Fridays

I've been wanting to do a weekly blog post for some time now.  I decided that since I have been on this fitness journey for a while now, that I would write weekly posts on some aspect of fitness.  Now when I say "fitness" I don't mean starving yourself to be a size 2 or trying the latest greatest diet fad.   I mean changing your lifestyle to making healthy food choices a majority of the time and exercising your body.  I have not reached my fitness goals yet, but I am working at it daily.  

I think the best decision I have made when it comes to fitness is having a personal trainer.  Someone who can help me figure out realistic fitness goals, hold me accountable to them and giving me the tools (exercise and food choices) to reach those goals.  

Now I don't want you to think a personal trainer is going to be like your fairy godmother, who will wave her magic wand and poof, you're in shape.  It took you more than a week to put on the weight, and it's going to take more than a week to get it off.  You have to be patient, and not give up when you don't drop 13lbs in a week like they do on "biggest loser"  That doesn't happen here in the real world.   You may not lose any weight the first few weeks, but that doesn't mean your body isn't changing.  You may find your clothes are fitting better instead.  You may find yourself not getting winded after going up two flights of stairs.  Things are changing, stick with it.  

You also have to remember a personal trainer can't be with you 24/7 (unless you're very wealthy) to monitor what food you are putting into your body.  You have to make the food choices, but if you write down what you eat every day in a journal, and bring it to your trainer, she can help guide you in the right direction.  She may tell you that after seeing what you've eaten for a week, you may be eating way too many carbs and not enough protein, or vice versa.  She may tell you that you have not been eating enough calories and your body is going into starvation mode and holding on to the weight, or maybe you're eating a few too many.  

You still have to show up for your workouts, she can't be a puppet master and move your body for you.  She is not there to be your friend during a workout.  My personal trainer really is my friend in my everyday life, but when I'm there to workout, she's not my friend for that hour.  Sometimes I don't like her during that hour.  She doesn't pat me on the back and say "it's ok honey, that's good enough, you did your best, you can be done now." when I want to quit.  Oh no, after 60 seconds of doing a wall squat and my legs are shaking and burning and I want to quit, she says "You got another 30 seconds to go, if you drop and quit, I'm going to add even more time!"  "You can do this, focus!"  Believe me, she will add more time.  That is just what I need, someone to motivate me and push me further than I would push myself, not someone who will enable me to give up when I think it's too hard.  I do get a "you did good, I'm proud of you." after I'm drenched in sweat and completely spent.

With the help of my trainer, Heather,  I have lost 27 lbs, 12% body fat and 3 pants/dress sizes.  How long did that take me?  Well most of it I achieved in the last 6 months.  The first year I trained with Heather, I worked out with her about twice a week, maybe once or twice a week on my own.  I lost about 7 lbs and a pants size and dropped a bit in body fat.   Now had I been making healthy food choices consistently  I would have reached my goals last year.  I would eat pretty good during the weekdays, and then on the weekends I would completely blow it and eat whatever I wanted.  Now you're not going to reach your goals very quickly by only working out twice a week and not eating consistently. I also had to stop my training during the late spring and summer because of my kids' sports schedule.  I tried to workout on my own at home, but I certainly did not push myself.  I did maintain my loss during that time, so that was good.  

In August, I decided to get more focused on my goals and be consistent in my training and eating.  It has paid off.  I was part of a "biggest loser" challenge with some other girls, and that helped motivate me as well.  Our last weigh in was in February, and I'm sorry to say I was not the biggest loser.  I lost by less than 1%.  So close!  I am hoping to reach my goal by summer.  What exactly is my goal.....well it's not a number on the scale.  It's a realistic size, and body fat percentage along with a few physical goals of being able to run a 5k and being able to do pull ups.  That pull up goal may take a while, but I will achieve it!  On Monday, Heather intensified my training and added some more to it. 
Here is my training schedule as of now: don't be jealous :0P
Monday-1 hour of circuit training and 90 mins. of Muay Thai 
Tuesday- couch to 5k program 30 min.
Wednesday- off
Thursday- 1 hour of circuit training
Friday- couch to 5k program 30 min. and 90 mins. of Muay Thai
Saturday-couch to 5k program 30 min. 1 hour of circuit training
Sunday-off

And because a blog post is always better with picutures, here's my before and after pictures from the last 6 months.  Don't make fun of my workout look, or I may have to show you some of my Muay Thai moves. :0P 
Looking at these photos motivate me to keep going, hopefully these posts will help motivate you to reach your goals as well.

momma's kisses

The best medicine in the world is a mother's kiss.
- Anonymous

If you'd like to see more images from this session, click here to see the facebook album.

Twirling, Twirling

Sunny days and warm weather make me want to go and twirl in a field too.

If you'd like to see more images from this session click here to go to the facebook album.

2012 Senior Model Program

Stigman Photography is looking for current juniors to be a part of our Senior Model Program.


The Stigman Photography Model Program is a way for 2012 high school seniors to earn discounts on their senior portraits, while helping us show off the latest styles and update our senior images.

Senior Rep Benefits:
1) A free 45 minute modeling test session taken in March.
2) Receive the senior portrait session of your choice for FREE when photographed in June 2011 (session fee only)
3) You'll get your test shoot images on facebook, and these will add more variety to the images for your senior portrait session.
4) Rep Cards-25 custom designed cards with your name and image to get you started (lets hope you will need more) Be sure to hand these out to your friends. For every rep card redeemed from your friends, you will receive $50 off your final portrait order and your friend will receive $50 toward their session fee. Valid one card per senior, per session.
5) A Look Book featuring some of your images from your test session. Be sure to show this to all your friends.

What's required of me?
We will need you AND your parents to sign a contract stating that you agree to have your 2012 senior portraits taken at Stigman Photography and that you will not represent another photographer or studio during your senior year.

Does is cost anything?
A good faith investment of $100 is required, but that entire $100 is given right back to you as a credit towards your senior portrait order.

Who are we looking for?
We're interested in 2012 seniors who appreciate the Stigman Photography quality, style and look, and who can see the difference in our work. You don't have to be a perfect model size or look like a model to get into the program. We base our decision on personality, activities, and eagerness to be in the program.

Only a limited number of reps will be accepted from each school. So if you are interested in being a part of our senior model program, then sign up TODAY!  Click here to fill out the application.  It's super easy!

Owensboro Family Photographer

Here is another fun, family session I had in the fall......Heather, Gavin and the bulldogs; Booker and Lola.

 We went to Heather's Grandpa's farm and made use of some old barns. 

 

 

We included Gavin's special blanket in a few images, here he's pretending to be superman, flying with his blanket...er...I mean ....cape.

and then it was off to the carnival.....Gavin got his tickets,

 and had a blast on the slide as well as a few other rides.

to check out all of Heather and Gavin's fun click here to see their slideshow.

Owensboro Family Photographer

Back in September I ran a family portrait contest, where the winner would receive a portrait session plus 25 Christmas cards.  Angie Wathen was the winner, and she had the perfect idea that would fit her family not to mention all the facebook votes.  This was Angie's idea:

"The location would be my parents farm. We could make pictures by the lake of us just having fun. Us riding on the ranger in the the woods. Would love pictures of us in the woods. There is also some old barns on the property. Mom and Dad's porch would make wonderful pictures, and there fountain area in the front. There is so many places on there farm that would be great for making outside family pictures."

 

A quick side note I have to tell you, most of the time the men do not like having to be in portraits but I do have the answer to remedy that problem ladies!  Are you ready for the answer?  Involve them in the whole process.  Take some time to talk together as a family, talk about what you enjoy doing the most together, and where.  Include the kids too, they will tell you when they have the most fun.  Once you figure out your favorite family activity and location, the rest is easy.  The guys and kids are more comfortable in front of the camera when they are in a place that is comfortable to them.  Just ask Angie's husband, Frank.  He'd tell you  he was pretty apprehensive about having to have family portraits made, but after a couple of minutes of driving around the farm and taking pictures, he was having fun, the whole family was having fun.  

I did Angie's family session at the end of October and I think we pretty much photographed every idea Angie had, plus some.

If you'd like to see more images you can check out the facebook album here.

Oh and her Christmas cards were pretty cool by the way, she was the envy of all her friends for having the coolest cards. ;0)

I'm back.......

OK, so I got through Christmas and New Years, and the sessions I meant to blog before Christmas never got blogged.  SO.......I'm just going to start with something recent (like last weekend) and then move backwards in my posts.  
 Last weekend was the ladies' conference at River City Church.  It was a blast; with great speakers, worship, music, terrific food, and getting to hang out with the girls.  Guess what my job was......you are correct....photos! 
  I set up a photo-booth for the ladies to get some fun pictures with their friends. 

And yes, there were some men at the conference working behind the scenes in child care, food service and music... Way to go guys!

Pastor Jessi Gibson speaking, with her baby on her hip.  It was an illustrated sermon during which she got a pedicure.  Can your pastor carry a baby, get a pedicure and preach a life changing message all at the same time?  Mine can!  :0)

  Pastor Sarah Wehrli speaking.  Pastor Sarah and her husband Caleb are the founders of Inspire International.  They have been missionaries to several countries in Asia.

Pastor Brian Gibson also spoke at the conference.  Good sermon as always.

We even had a few special guests.  If you live around Owensboro then you may have heard the hilarious Kizzy on the radio every now and then.  She did not let us down and had us laughing all the time.

The musical guest was Lacey Brown, who was on American Idol last season.  Lacey sang during the worship time and closed out the conference Friday night with a few of her new songs she has coming out.   Fabulous!  You can check out Lacey's new website here.

 

Check out the decor of the conference......

Several people worked hard decorating the church, they did a tremendous  job.   Meagan Williams created all the shoes displayed.  She's a talented artist by the way, you can check out her site here.

The worship music was excellent as usual.

 Of course you have to have chocolate at a womens' conference,

And shopping! A silent auction was going on with proceeds going to Life Impact International. A bizarre was also set up for women to display their talents; sewing, knitting, crocheting, art, etc. I put up a display of some of the new portrait products I had gotten in recently.  Many thanks to my good friend Sarah Wellmeier for helping me put up my display. 

I have to give a shout out to Robin Jones for assisting me with the photo-booth and to Carrie Colbert for taking some great candid shots during the party.  Thanks ladies!  It took many people to make the conference a success, and I think they all did a wonderful job.  I'm looking forward to next year's conference!

Click here to see a slideshow of more photos from the conference.